China's economy is in rapid decline and housing prices have plummeted. Schematic diagram (AFP file photo)
China's domestic economy has been severely affected from 2021 to 2022. Nowadays, it is reported that housing prices in first-tier areas in Guangzhou are still uninterested at 30% off. Even top university graduates are trapped in the dilemma of being unemployed, highlighting the cliff-like decline crisis of China's economy. In recent years, there are even agencies that have arranged for Chinese men to "fake marriages and work real jobs" to join the Taiwanese job market in order to pray for food, clothing and freedom.
Statistics from the Immigration Department also show that in 2004, there were only 256 Chinese men who came to Taiwan through marriage. However, since 2023, the number of Chinese men (excluding Hong Kong and Macao) who applied to come to Taiwan in the name of marriage has hit a new high in the past 19 years, exceeding the 1,000 mark, reaching 1,508.
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It is reported that in the past few decades, most cross-strait cross-strait marriages have been based on "Chinese women marrying to Taiwan." After the Chinese women obtained a Taiwan ID card, they brought their original families to Taiwan. In recent years, suspected to be due to China's rapid economic decline, many Chinese men have crossed the sea to survive.
Ah Shun (pseudonym) from Guangzhou is also a member of the fleeing wave. He said that China's economy is getting worse and worse, and the people have gradually lost confidence. At the beginning of last year, business relatives and friends were taken away by the police and detained for seven months just for posting a poster "Hope the Chinese Government to Save the Economy". After returning home, I didn't even know what crime I had committed. I only heard that I was accused of being "unpatriotic." Ah Shun sighed and said that calling for economic rescue in China feels like "something that must not be said."
Ah Shun said that under the pressure of survival and space for expression, he decided to spend NT$160,000 in agency fees and fled to Taiwan. After passing a difficult interview, he had to pay his wife NT$10,000 per month as a capitation fee and a commission for the agency introduction work. After deducting the cost of living, the money at his disposal was no more than in China, but what he got was that he could criticize Chinese government officials for their freedom of speech and personal freedom.
Another man from Fujian, Awen (pseudonym), paid an agency fee of 40,000 yuan to work on a construction site in Taiwan. He had to hand over about one-third of his income to the agency and his wife every month, and the remaining money had to be sent back to his hometown. He admitted that although his life was not better, at least he did not have to worry about saying something wrong and suddenly disappearing. He only hoped to obtain a Taiwan ID card as soon as possible and become a true Taiwanese.
A senior Immigration Department official pointed out that fake marriages not only involve civil servants committing false crimes, but also violate the Cross-Strait People's Relations Regulations. The phenomenon of "Chinese men coming to Taiwan for fake marriages" reflects that the severity of China's economic downturn is far beyond the imagination of the outside world. Although the Immigration Department has prevented most people from entering into fake marriages under the control of the Immigration Department, it is inevitable that some fish will slip through the net. We will continue to follow up and investigate to reduce concerns about national security and social order.
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It is difficult for a Chinese man to make quick money after fleeing to Taiwan. He is worried that if he is caught and deported, his relatives may be harmed.
Immigration Department strictly monitors fake marriages to prevent erroneous border security, but it is still difficult to prevent fish from slipping through the net
